Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 8.39 and we're joined this morning by the Director of Economic Development for the City of Geneva, David West. David, good morning. How are you this morning?
David West: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing great. It's a beautiful day.
Paul Szmal: Yes, it certainly is and, well, things are fairly buzzing. There's been a lot of development activity in Geneva and we wanted to go over some of those development projects starting with one that's happening at the Finger Lakes Times Building.
David West: That's right. The Finger Lakes Times Building has been up for sale. The city has been working to make sure that we really get a good project for that site. One of our local homegrown developers has put in an offer on that, Lakeview. They do a lot of work here and they're working with CSD out of Rochester who are one of the best affordable housing developers in the state. So they have that property under contract and are looking at coming to the planning board very soon with a project that they previewed with City Council earlier this month. They're looking at a mix of affordable units in that building that are going to serve income ranges that are very similar to the people who already live in the area. And some of the units there will be linked to specific services that Lakeview provides. They provide a lot of service to folks in the community already and one of the things that they've noticed is that a lot of their clients have a really hard time with the rental stock that's available in the community now. A lot of them have very low quality apartments, cut up houses, things like that. And they're really looking to provide a much better quality of life and better amenity to downtown. So I think that's an exciting one. It's going to get a lot more people living downtown, customers for our businesses. And that one's moving fast. I think they're really ahead of the game and have been on top of things.
Paul Szmal: So we would anticipate that sometime soon there'll be a formal presentation on that?
David West: Yes, so they gave a presentation to city council and there's video of that available on the city's webpage. We're expecting that they'll be ready to come to the planning board in April at the regular, I think it's the third Wednesday of the month, planning board meeting.
Paul Szmal: There's another project going on at 595 Exchange Street. What can you tell us about that one, David?
David West: That's right. 595 Exchange, a lot of people know of it as the OEO site. So this is the site of a former factory in downtown Geneva. It's been a hole in the ground as long as a lot of people can remember. Right at the edge of downtown, the city owns this parcel and has done some work to get it ready for development. They combined several parcels into one and put out what's called a request for proposals for a preferred developer. So we put out into the development community that the city was really interested in working with a development partner to come up with a plan for this site that meets the city's goals and also is financially feasible from a development standpoint. And the city this month appointed a team to run that process, and that team is a combination of Greenleaf Builders, Pivotal Property Management, Taylor the Builders, and Hunt Engineers and Architects. And several of the members of this team have been involved with some other proposals for the site. They've done a lot of thinking about it, and they're planning probably a public meeting in April as well to talk about the things that are possible for that site, the ways that we can make that as good for the community as possible, and really how that development can work.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Geneva Economic Development Director David West here on FLX Morning and talking about some of the current development projects in the various states that they're in around the city of Geneva. There's another parcel of property that is on that development list, and that's 23 Jackson Street.
David West: That's right. 23 Jackson is the former foundry site. That went through a big process of cleanup over the last decade. It was an EPA Superfund site. A lot of money was put into removing soils that had been contaminated, not only on that site, but on the whole neighborhood around it, and it was cleaned up to a level that's called limited residential, so it allows multifamily housing development as well as commercial. A group that's one of the best affordable housing developers in the state, Home Leasing, has put in an offer for that parcel that the city accepted this month, and they'll be moving towards community meetings also in April, getting with the neighbors to talk about things that people would like to see in that, how the design can work the best with the neighborhood. So they've done some very initial thinking about kind of what sort of building would fit in that area. Five stories are allowed. They're trying to be sensitive to people's kind of concern about bigger development, so they've proposed four stories, and the way that's arranged on the site is something that can continue to be adjusted as they go through the review process.
Paul Szmal: There are a couple of other projects that are ongoing. One of them involves Habitat for Humanity over on Crystal Street.
David West: Yes, so Habitat bought lots that are going to allow them to build eight homes on Crystal Street. It's an area that's been subdivided for homes for quite a long time. There were a few buildings on it that were cleared a while ago, and it really hasn't catalyzed the kind of development that kind of was laid out. There's sort of a paper street there, Maryland Street at the end of Crystal Street, that the city always thought would become more of a neighborhood. So seeing Habitat come in and build entry-level homes for families, they have a great model where the people who are getting the house help in the construction, and I know that a lot of groups are already beating down my door ready to volunteer to help build those houses. So it's exciting.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's always great to have Habitat for Humanity working in the community. There's one other property, the Cook Properties on Middle and Hollenbeck. What's happening there?
David West: Yeah, so that parcel is across the street from what used to be the DPW Garage, and it's just been vacant for quite a while. Cook put in an offer to purchase it, and what they would like to do is subdivide it into four lots that they'll sell each lot individually with a home that they'll put on it. And they've been working on doing more infill. So Cook is a large owner of manufactured home parks, but they're getting into more neighborhood development now. And so what they would do here is put a really high-quality manufactured home that has a porch, really blends in with the neighborhood on each of these lots, and they would be sold individually. Because they're made in factories, the price is a lot lower than stick-built housing. So they're thinking that they can get houses on a lot, brand-new 1,200-square-foot homes for sale on the market for under $200,000, which would be quite an achievement and something that's really rare. We see similar homes just outside the city. The city hasn't seen many new homes in quite a long time. But just outside the city, we see similar new homes selling for $300,000 or more.
Paul Szmal: And speaking of property, the city-owned property right now, there is the opportunity, but a deadline is coming up for people to make offers on some of the city-owned parcels, a couple of which we discussed last time you were here.
David West: Yeah, that's right. The city adopted a process where every quarter we review offers, and people can put in offers on any property that's available. There's a list of parcels that staff thinks are ready to sell, and those parcels are listed on the city website. But really, you could put in an offer on any city-owned property. You could put in an offer on City Hall if you wanted. And there's about two weeks now until we'll be reviewing those offers. So folks can go to the City of Geneva website or reach out to me. My email is dwest.geneva.ny.us to get the forms in order to do that. And really, I want to say that we're looking to see projects that increase the tax base, that bring new housing, that bring new businesses. We really want properties that we sell to improve the community and be a part of starting Geneva growing again, and not just changing hands, but setting bacon. So we're really looking for these proposals to come with not only a decent sale price, but also a plan for the future that's going to generate revenue and amenities for the community.
Paul Szmal: So what happens after this window? Is there one particular session where all of these are reviewed, or are they just reviewed on their own individual merits, one by one?
David West: Yeah, so what happens is there's a staff committee that takes all of the offers that have come in. We review those offers. This committee includes code enforcement, assessment, fire, my department, and the comptroller. And we look at the offers and see, you know, what are they going to do for the community? Are they going to meet the goals that we lay out in the comprehensive plan and also in the application package? Is the price something that makes sense? And then we would make a recommendation to council, and it's ultimately city council that decides whether or not to accept any of those offers. And again, the deadline for this is April the 6th.
Paul Szmal: So David, we appreciate the information. As always, thank you for joining us.
David West: Thank you for having me.
Paul Szmal: It is 8.50 on FLX Morning.
